Adelaide City v Campbelltown City
PlayStation 4 National Premier League South Australia   - Round 6

When: Saturday, April 9th. Kick-off 3.00 pm
Where: Adelaide City Park Fosters Road, OAKDEN

Teams:

Adelaide City: Not Provided

Campbelltown City: 20 N. Harpas4 I. Fyfe23 J. Halliday2 S. Harvey10 J. Monaco7 L. Ditroia18 K. Minomura6 V. Parhas14 A. Piscioneri9 T. Strain11 A. Ture21 N. Guglielmucci8 K. Hara15 A. Kaine16 J. Maricic12 J. Williams

Form:

Adelaide City: D L W

Campbelltown City: W L D

Preview:

Campbelltown City will be seeking some redemption after two four nil drubbings at the hands of Adelaide City in the last two meetings between these two clubs, when they travel to Adelaide City Park for Round 6 of the PlayStation 4 National Premier League South Australia.  

Adelaide City come into this game on the back of a good home win over Raiders, but coach Damian Mori would have some concerns having conceded eleven goals in the first five rounds of the season.

The player movement continued during the week as Adelaide City farewelled Mathew Mullen and welcomed Jordan Pudler (ex Adelaide United) into the fold. Pudler will be a handy acquisition to the defensive structure, and will give Adelaide City plenty of drive out of defence.

Adelaide City boast an abundance of talent up forward which has seen Lewis Farquar squeezed out of the starting line-up (temporarily). Anthony Costa has been consistently finding the back of the net, while new signings Nicola Mileusnic and Mamadi Kamara have been outstanding on their respective wings. Campbelltown will no doubt have done their homework during the week to come up with a strategy to quell their influence.

Adelaide midfield dynamo Nicholas Bucco said that the atmosphere around the club was positive as players fight for starting position. But Bucco believes Farquar’s return is imminent.

“We have a solid squad so competition for spots is strong, which is a good thing. We will go into Saturday’s game confident we can get the job done, but knowing that Campbelltown is a good side,” Bucco said.

“We expect a hard encounter and nothing less from them. They have a quality squad and are well drilled. We had a good look at them during the preseason and have a good idea what to expect.”

Campbelltown will be hoping to have striker Tom Strain available for selection this week after missing last week’s game with hamstring tightness.

Creative Campbelltown winger Luigi Ditroia, who has moved from defence to an attacking role this season, expects Adelaide City to throw out a very strong challenge with their pace and spread, but believes that his side can catch them on the counter attack.

“They are a very quick side, but they have been exposed down back by other sides this year, so we will be hoping to do the same,” Ditroia said.

“We have the fire power up front to hit the back of the net. Tom (Strain) has trained really hard this week so expect him to take his place up front on the weekend.”

“We know we have to stay defensively solid and keep our shape to get the win. If we work hard as a team and help each other the result will take care of itself,” he added.

There is going to be a great match up in the midfield when Bucco and Minomura go head to head, the winner of that contest will go a long way in giving his side the winning edge.

This will be another cracker of a match between these two Eastern suburbs rivals. Both have great talent across the park, so expect this game to be played like an arm wrestle from start to finish.

Written by: Joe Pangallo - 5RTI Sports 531am
Twitter:      @JoJo_ontheball